


Stalled

by Karios



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Awkward Comforter, F/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Reboot, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 20:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18581803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karios/pseuds/Karios
Summary: Fearing Eleanor is close to figuring him out again, Michael tries to give her a reverse-torture in some alone time. Unfortunately for him, Chidi decides to take the elevator, and attempt 158 grinds to a halt along with it.





	Stalled

**Author's Note:**

  * For [outruntheavalanche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/outruntheavalanche/gifts).



> Thanks to salazarastark for the beta!

_“Attempt Number 159. 158 was a complete failure all because Chidi didn't take the stairs,” Michael said into his recorder, then paused the device._

_Why had Chidi gotten on the elevator? Had he and Eleanor become that inseparable just because they were mashing their foodholes together occasionally? Was Chidi just tired? Everything about Michael’s research over the last hundred plus reboots and from Chidi’s life file had indicated Chidi would take the stairs over the elevator._

_Michael hit record again, and added: “Maybe it was just because I'd told them they were soulmates this time around again. I had meant to trap Eleanor on her own. Separate her from the others while I worked some other angles. Maybe with a bit of break, she wouldn't catch on so fast. Chidi, on the other hand . . . he panicked.”_

“Eleanor, the elevator stopped. It's definitely stopped,” Chidi said, punctuating the words with the flappy arm gestures he used when he couldn't find words to express how vexed he was.

Eleanor realized then and there she'd come to really appreciate that flapping, as one of those weird things that made Chidi her nerd.

“Sure looks like it, yeah,” Eleanor said, leaning back against the wall.

“And there's no emergency button. Who didn't put in an emergency button? Are you finding it harder to breathe, or it just me?” Chidi tugged at his collar and wheezed a bit. “Oh god, how long until we run out of air?”

“Janet, duh. She built everything. And I don't think we actually need air. Not that I'm any kind of expert.” 

Chidi froze there, hunched and breathing heavy. Tiny sputtering noises escaped his lips.

Eleanor looked up and noticed the intensity of Chidi's distress for the first time and crossed over to him. She put her hands on his shoulders. “Chidi, Chidi! Look at me! I need you to breathe with me.” Eleanor led him through three slow deep breaths, then just stood there until some of the panic ebbed away along with the tension in his shoulders.

“Thanks,” he said.

“Anytime.” She moved away so as not to crowd him.

“Eleanor?”

“Yeah?”

“Why aren't you concerned? I know I'm concerned about everything, all the time, but I’m pretty sure being trapped in an elevator is almost universally upsetting.”

“Being stuck here means sweet freedom, man. We won’t have to go any neighborhood gatherings, or put up with Michael, or have any lessons until it’s fixed. Honestly, I hope it takes a while.” Eleanor slid down the elevator wall and sat down, plush carpet cradled her butt.

“It is not sweet, Eleanor. It is not cool. It is not awesome, fantastic, or magnificent.”

“That's enough adjectives, Chitarino.”

“My point is, being trapped in a small metal box suspended precariously between floors is the exact opposite of freedom! The relatively minor social niceties required of us in the Good Place are not that difficult.”

“They are for me,” she complained, adopting her Chidi-impression voice. “Eleanor, pick up this trash. Eleanor, be polite to perfect Tahani while she goes on and on about Anna Kendrick. Eleanor, read this boring book by this dead guy.”

Chidi had sucked in a breath to reply when she added: “‘Eleanor, don't lick that toilet plunger!’ That last one was from Jason and good advice, but still.”

Whatever Chidi had been about to say got overpowered by curiosity. “You were going to lick a toilet plunger?”

“It was for a gross-out contest! And Glenn down the street offered me a whole five bucks,” defended Eleanor.

“But what would you even buy anyway? Everything here is free!”

“I had plans!” she insisted. “Besides, you should have seen what Jason did with Glenn's –”

Chidi visibly shuddered. “I _really_ don't want you to finish that sentence, and you've gotten me off topic.”

“There was a topic?”

“Yes,” Chidi closed his eyes, and attempted to breathe slow and even through his nose. “The point I was trying to make is you wanted to be a good person, and being a good person means doing things we don't always want to do.”

“So you're saying I should've licked the plunger?”

“No! Forget the plunger. I'm saying you should be willing to listen to a friend or attend a party because no one wants to live in a world where no one attends parties or people tune them out when they talk.”

“I do,” muttered Eleanor.

“You and everyone else in the Bad Place I’m sure,” Chidi fired back.

The wounded look that flickered across Eleanor's face was gone in an instant. Chidi caught it anyway, and guilt coated his conscience quicker and more thoroughly than his favorite almond milk coated his tongue. Insulting Eleanor wasn't kind or fair. Chidi didn't want to live in a world where people jumped to point out other people's shortcomings. He didn't want to be that person, especially not with someone he cared about.

'Pull it together, Chidi. Say something,’ he scolded himself.

“Eleanor, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have compared you to demons. I . . .” he hesitated just a fraction too long and Eleanor pounced on it.

“But you can't say you didn't mean it, because you did, and it's never right to lie.”

“You're right. But –” Chidi kept talking, but Eleanor was determined to speak over him.

“Just shut up and stay on your side, okay? I don't feel like talking anymore.”

_Michael picked up the recorder again: “I was going to leave them like that. Chidi, half pacing in front of the door, growing increasingly anxious and guilt-ridden. Eleanor, head lolled against the back wall, feeling rejected. Chidi insulting Eleanor was torture gold. But then, well, I got greedy and I just couldn't help myself.”_

Light, repetitive jazz filled the car. Eleanor glanced up at the speakers in horror.

“No, the forking elevator breaks down, but _that_ shirt still works?”

“Maybe that's just the first part of the system to come online and it means we'll be moving soon?” Chidi suggested hesitantly.

They lapsed into a few minutes of silence, waiting, while only the music droned on.

“Or maybe not,” Chidi slumped to the floor in defeat.

A moment later, Eleanor launched herself across the car, and Chidi hastily scrambled away on his hands and knees.

“What are you doing?” Chidi asked, his voice octave higher than normal as he looked on at Eleanor clawing for purchase along the smooth shiny walls.

“Must. . .get to. . .the speakers!” she growled. Eleanor managed to get both feet off the ground for a second before her fingers slipped, dragging down the wall with a terribly loud squeak that was grating compared to the dulcet tune pouring out above them.

Not wanting to spook Eleanor when she was already upset with him, Chidi tried the only other thing he could think of. “Janet!” he called loudly.

When she doesn't appear, Chidi announced, “Now I really have a stomachache.”

Eleanor stopped scrabbling at the wall and turned to him, her eyes softening. “It's going to be okay, bud.”

“But this is the Good Place. Elevators shouldn't stall here! And Janet is supposed to come when we call and, and. . . .” Chidi’s words ran out of steam, and he let out a groan, thunking his head against the wall.

“It's a glitch! Like those giant rabbits that tore through the neighborhood on day two because I made fun of Tahani's doofy bunny-face cupcakes.”

_“Tahani had chosen a spring theme for the welcome party this time on account of the standard weather, so I made it downpour. She was so miserable. Messing with the weather was a success. Definitely doing that one again,” Michael noted._

Chidi pushed off the wall, tension throughout his body. “How, how is that supposed to make me feel any better? What if it decides to glitch next by, I don't know, _falling,_ and we plunge to our deaths?”

“We're already dead,” she reminded him gently, as she sat down again. “You can't get more dead. There isn't like double dead, is there?” She sounded less convinced now, pulling her knees toward her chest.

“I don't know because the one thing I didn't think to worry about here in the afterlife was dying. So thanks for that.”

“We don't what would happen if it falls. It could just keep falling. Falling forever with me, you could do a lot worse.”

Chidi laughed, slightly hysterical, but a laugh nonetheless. “I could.”

Eleanor smiled. “C'mere, fake soulmate.”

He moved towards Eleanor and offered her his hands, fingers interlaced. “Come on. I'm giving you a boost up. You're getting that speaker.”

Together they worked to hoist Eleanor up toward the ceiling of the car. Chidi removed one of her shoes and she pounded it against the speaker mesh. As soon as the speaker gave way, three things happened. The sound died out, Eleanor cheered and hoisting her arms in the air, lost her balance atop Chidi.

They landed in a twisted heap on the floor of the elevator.

“Ow,” they chorused. “Ow, ow, ow.”

“You okay?” Eleanor asked, as they untangle themselves.

“Yeah, I think so,” he said, before breaking into the kind of smile that made Eleanor's stomach flip. “You asked about me.”

“I care about you, you dork.” She shook her head, as though that should be obvious.

The elevator started moving.

“Are you okay?” he asked, offering her a hand up.

“No. Because the real Good Place might have glitches, or stopped elevators, or an unreliable Janet, or truly awful jazz.” She made her way to her feet and kicked off her remaining shoe. “But the real Good Place wouldn't let me break my shoe while destroying property.”

“Wait, what?” Chidi did a double take. “Eleanor, what are you saying?”

“This is the Bad Place!” Eleanor timed her declaration to coincide with when the doors rolled open.

“You got me again,” Michael said with a sigh. He snapped his fingers before she could get through the doors.

_Michael straightened up, rearranged his features into that disgusting friendly Welcome to the Neighborhood smile and pulled opened his office door._

_“Eleanor Shellstrop, come on in.”_

_He'd get it this time._


End file.
